Shizuku Ramen

Almost a year later (ok not quite), I find myself back at Shizuku Ramen to try their new and revamped menu. I quite enjoyed it the first time, so was looking forward to giving it another go.

Their new menu has a wide variety now, compared to the last time I visited when it all fit onto one page. They’ve now expanded into more options for ramen and plenty of entrees and sharing dishes.

Dropping by on a Friday night, the place felt a little cramped as it was full of people, but it was also a feel-good atmosphere of everyone enjoying their dinner and a catch up.

I enjoy their hip decor and the empty alcohol bottles they use for water. They also provide complimentary popcorn, powdered with something lightly brown and addictive on top, so much that I couldn’t stop until it got too salty at the bottom. It was something different to your average prawn crackers and really emphasised their take on modern cuisine.

To start off, we ordered some crab meat croquettes ($8) below. It felt a bit plain despite the description of fresh crab meat, corn, white wine and we would have probably preferred a bit more plum sauce to liven up the taste. I did enjoy the deep-fried exterior, but who doesn’t like something deep-fried!

A cold rainy night, we also ordered some Japanese tea to warm the souls. We then ordered two sliders after asking about how big they were and decided one would not be enough.

We ordered the lobster ($6) and pork ($5, below) sliders. The lobster tasted great but it felt really cold, like the lobster meat had just come straight from the fridge. The pork had BBQ sauce and was nothing to rave about – my friend also found the meat a little dry. Out of the entrees I think we liked the lobster slider the best, but still think it could use a little work.

For our mains, my friend went with a ramen burger ($15) as she’s not really a ramen fan and so I recommended this. You may have read my last post and discovered I really enjoyed it and luckily my friend did too on this occasion. She did it the classy way though and asked for a knife and fork, which actually seemed to serve their purpose quite well.

We both think the attractive taste of the burger comes from the dark sauce. I’m still not sure what’s in it but it seems similar to plum sauce and works well with the candied pork belly.

I also wanted to try something different, and after already trying the ramen burger, I went with the Shoyu Ramen Super Dry ($15). I was lucky as they thought they may have run out of serves for the night but there was still two left.

It comes with Shoyu broth on the side to provide that much-needed winter warmer, but the noodles itself were drenched in a tasty caramelised Shoyu sauce. In trend with the other sauces, it had a dark brown hue.

On first glances, it looks like there’s not a lot of topping with several slices of char siu (BBQ pork) but the sauce adds a lot of flavour and depth to fill you up along with the soup. The soup had a slight tang of something that made it a little salty. I didn’t mind it and it performed its job of balancing out the dry noodles, but I think I prefer the Shoyu broth at Fukuryu Ramen.

I’m glad that I was able to try the dry ramen as it was something a little different to normal. I think the main attraction here would be the ramen and ramen burger, so I wouldn’t mind coming back to try their other types of ramen and maybe give something from the zensai (hors d’oeuvre) menu another try.

Shizuku Ramen is located 309 Victoria St, Abbotsford and is open everyday 11.30-2.30pm and 5.30-10pm.